We're Alive!

Yes, we're alive. Holidays are busy for everyone, but they've been especially busy for us this year. Since finding out at the last minute that we wouldn't have a house for the holidays, the baby and I packed up and headed to Houston for the 20th through Christmas. Big A had to stay behind and work while commuting from his parents' house. He joined us in Houston as soon as possible, and then we had a wonderful Christmas together! The baby tuckered out half way through opening presents, took a nap, and then got up to finish the rest :)

Christmas Day we shuttled all of our stuff to Big A's parents' house, and we've been here ever since. We're grateful to have a place to stay, but boy it's hard with this many people. Everyone has a different sleep schedule and wake schedule, and there isn't enough room for us, technically speaking. We're camping out on the dining room floor while the baby takes his paw-paw's office. Oy. I'll be glad for real rooms and real beds when all of this gets sorted out. Apparently people at the evil mortgage company don't work anytime near a holiday whatsoever, so we're still waiting to hear if things are going through alright.

I'll be headed down to San Antonio for a wedding on New Year's Eve, and I'll be back laaaaaate. But if I catch up enough on sleep this weekend then I'll post some Christmas pictures. Heck, I still need to post pictures from the baby's birthday party! Aaaaaah! Ok, enough freaking out, time to get back to work.

Love,
The Super-Northy

Anthony - 1 year

Dear Anthony,

You're a year old. Part of me feels like you've been in my life forever, like there could never be a me without you. And the other part feels like you just got here, all shiny and new. (Remember when you were this tiny?)

You light up our lives and excite us every day. You've taught us how to love harder, for you and each other. Every tiny thing you do each day is important and special to us. For your birthday, we documented you in photographs and video from the minute we crept into your room singing "Happy Birthday" to opening your first birthday present before we put you to bed. I had planned on sharing most or all of it with the world because I could sing your adorable praises from the rooftops all day long. But when it came to writing this letter, I realized that those most intimate of moments we had with you should just be for our little family. I can't wait to show them to you some day. Your little 5-toothed smile will crack you up, and it makes me want to cry for the cuteness.

When I went to bed last night I looked at the clock. It was 11:10. Last year at that time you were 2 minutes old. I had made it through the entire day without actually crying until that point. I laid in bed awake a long time with a little tear or two sneaking out, thinking about your first hours of life and praying for you.

I know you'll have many more birthdays. Birthdays that will bring lots of changes. But for now you're my Little Guy, my Baby Son, and my Buddy.

I love you,
Mom

P.S. Because a post is always better with pictures, here are some less intimate moments for public consumption :)

Impending Hair Cut

Tomorrow's the day. I'm being forced to give my child a slight trim. Some of his bangs have become unruly, and they get in his eyes a lot...thus the side-sweep that he's usually rockin. Well it's gotten pretty bad. When he knocks his hair straight forward, some of the pieces come down by his nose...eek! Therefore, he shall have those long pieces (AND ONLY THOSE!) trimmed off in the morning. Otherwise, we can go with this hair style:



I stumbled across these photos that I took a week or two ago but forgot to post. This was pretty soon after the "incident", you can still see the busted lip. Thank goodness his handsomeness is all back to normal now! But he's still stinking cute, even if his lip is a little big in these photos.





(Yes, he's making his "concerned" noise in the next photo)


I could be wrong (my mom is the only good judge of this), but I'm pretty sure he looks SO much like his mama at this age :)


For this next photo, I feel like the lovers of lolcats.com will like it the most.
"I iz goin to keel you wiv my James Bond stare"


P.S. Unrelated: I may not have lost all the baby weight, but I'm still slim enough to get behind the dryer to retrieve wayward light bulbs...hallelujah!!

Hat Model

I realized that I call my son by his first and middle name a lot (seeing as how we have two Anthony's, it makes sense). I had jokingly said that I would call him "A-Dub" before he was born. It actually happened today. Horrible nickname, here we come!!

Anyway, Anthony Warren is considering his bright future in hat modeling.





Oh sad, the picture below was taken next to scary table that did the scary things to his face.



Still sad about not closing and moving next week. BUT excited because it's one week until my little baby turns 1! Samantha and I tried to teach him to hold up one finger to show "how many" he's going to be. He just kept grabbing our fingers and laughing; I think it reminded him of the sign for banana :)

Seriously

Seriously. It's my word. It's been my word for a long time. Usually I can use it in a fun-loving, half-sarcastic kind of way. But now...*sigh*...I give it to the unworthy...the bank. SERIOUSLY, CITI?! SERIOUSLY?!?!??!?!!?!!

We had our date all set up to move into the new house next week, and then they yanked the rug out from under us at the last minute. Dreams of moving in before our son's birthday and before Christmas...dashed. Well, I guess this means Anthony has to let me decorate the old house for Christmas now. But still, boooooo. And we had to cancel lots of things today like our appliance delivery, moving trucks, etc. Hmph. I know, I know, there could be a lot worse things happening to you. But still. You can tell somebody these things before the last minute so it's not such a blow. And the run around they're giving us??....I say to you, Citi...

SERIOUSLY?!

Seniors and Smiles

First off, I'd like to say a big, huge, ginormous THANK YOU to my Emily (that's right, I claimed her, she's MINE!). She took a day that I had been slightly dreading and came over with a super sweet surprise. What a fantastic friend!! If you don't have some Emily in your life, GET SOME.

*Smiles*

New subject, I took Samantha for some belated senior portraits. Of course I don't have space to post them all, but trust me, she was cracking up in almost every single picture. We had a hard time keeping a straight face long enough to communicate ideas back and forth. Love it!


























And after that was done, I needed to do something with those balloons...